First Look at the Avett Brothers Musical SWEPT AWAY Key Art in Collaboration With Poster Artist Ken Taylor

Producers Matthew Masten, Sean Hudock, and Madison Wells Live have released new key art designed by poster artist Ken Taylor and designer and strategist Drew Hodges for the new musical Swept Away – featuring a book by Tony Award® winner John Logan (Red), direction by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) and music and lyrics by "America's Biggest Roots Band" (Rolling Stone) The Avett Brothers – which will run in Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater November 25-December 30.

Check out the design below!

Limited-edition 16” x 24” screen prints of the poster are now available for purchase here.

The Swept Away key art is a collaboration between rock ‘n’ roll poster artist Ken Taylor, known for his work with clients including Metallica, Pearl Jam, The Pixies, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, and The Avett Brothers, and Drew Hodges, the Creative Director of Drew Design Co., who created art for Hamilton, Chicago, and Company.

“As a long time Avett Brothers fan and concert poster artist, this was a dream gig for me,” said Taylor. “I absolutely loved working on this one and I can’t wait to see it out in the wild!”

“Before Hamilton, before Chicago, before Rent, before Broadway, I did rock 'n roll,” said Hodges. “I created album packages for the likes of Aerosmith, Lisa Loeb, and branding work for MTV and Swatch in its heyday. Knowing how much excitement there is working on The Avett Brothers’ first project for the musical stage, I was thrilled to collaborate with Ken, the master of the reborn alt rock poster, and hopefully surprise audiences with a fresh new look that shakes up the stage.”

To view designs by Ken Taylor, please visit www.kentaylor.com.au/wp. To view designs by Drew Design Co., please visit http://www.drewdesignco.com.

The Arena Stage production will reunite much of the team from the show’s Berkeley Repertory Theatre world premiere, which enjoyed a thrice-extended run in early 2022. It will star Tony Award winner John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening), Tony Award nominee Stark Sands (Kinky Boots), Adrian Blake Enscoe (Apple TV+’s Dickinson), and Wayne Duvall (1984).

For information and tickets, please visit the link below.

Set in 1888, Swept Away follows four survivors—a young man in search of adventure (Enscoe), his big brother who has sworn to protect him (Sands), a captain at the end of a long career at sea (Duvall), and a worldly first mate who has fallen from grace (Gallagher)—after a violent storm sinks their whaling ship off the coast of New Bedford, Massachusetts. How far will they go to stay alive? And can they live with the consequences? Described as “reverberating all the way into your core” (San Francisco Chronicle), this electrifying, soul-stirring musical explores how facing tragedy can open the door to forgiveness, if only we’ll let it.

Joining Duvall, Enscoe, Gallagher, and Sands onstage is a talented ensemble comprised of Hunter Brown (The Sound of Music National Tour), Matt DeAngelis (Broadway’s Waitress), Taurean Everett (Broadway’s Moulin Rouge! The Musical), Cameron Johnson (Broadway’s Into the Woods), Brandon Kalm (Broadway’s Waitress), Michael J. Mainwaring (Arena’s Smokey Joe's Café), Orville Mendoza (Broadway’s Peter and the Starcatcher), Tyrone L. Robinson (Broadway’s Frozen), John Sygar (Kennedy Center’s Look Both Ways), and Jamari Johnson Williams (Broadway’s Ain’t Too Proud).

In addition to Mayer, the Swept Away creative team includes Tony Award-nominated Choreographer David Neumann, Music Arranger & Orchestrator Chris Miller, Music Arranger & Orchestrator / Music Supervisor Brian Usifer, Music Director Will Van Dyke, Tony Award-winning Set Designer Rachel Hauck, Tony Award-winning Costume Designer Susan Hilferty, four-time Tony Award-winning Lighting Designer Kevin Adams, Tony Award-winning Sound Designer John Shivers, New York Casting Director Jim Carnahan, Jillian Cimini, and Alexandre Bleau, CSA, DC Casting Director Joseph Pinzon, Stage Manager Matthew Leiner, and Assistant Stage Managers Alice M. Pollitt, Marne Anderson, and Jalon Payton.

KEN TAYLOR BIOGRAPHY

Known for creating bold heavily detailed illustration & design work, Melbourne based Ken Taylor has been a leading name in the world of concert posters and pop culture artwork for many years.

Ken has been fortunate enough to work for many exciting clients in the world of entertainment and pop culture, some of these include: Mondo, Lionsgate, Sony, Activision, Apple, NASA, Nike, Under Armour, Sierra Nevada, AMC, HBO, Tripleclx, Metallica, Pearl Jam, The Pixies, Phish, The National, Queens of The Stone Age, The Avett Brothers, Jack White, Dave Matthews Band, Bob Dylan & The Rolling Stones.

DREW HODGES BIOGRAPHY

Drew Hodges is founder of SpotCo (1997) and most recently DrewDesignCo (2016). Along with a team of 368 collaborators over the last 25 years, Mr. Hodges has helped sell over 30 million tickets to live entertainment and created the branding and advertising campaigns for three decades of theatrical shows including 9 Pulitzer Prize winners. He is proud to have helped launch many culturally iconic titles, including Rent, Chicago, The Color Purple, Avenue Q, Vagina Monologues, Kinky Boots and Hamilton.  

DrewDesignCo is devoted to imaging for entertainment and culture. Recent theatrical collaborations include Sweeney Todd, Sweat (winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize), Mean Girls, Cher, and Moulin Rouge.  He was a producer as well as creative advisor on the Tony Award winning Company. He served as creative director for Broadway’s comeback campaigns after 9/11, as well as during its Covid shutdown and subsequent re-launch.

Mr. Hodges has taught graphic design at his alma mater The School of Visual Arts, and at The Maine College of Art. He has served as president of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts/New York. He is the author of On Broadway: from Rent to Revolution, published April 2016 by Rizzoli Publishing. He currently resides in Portland, Maine.

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